Tubular electric heating elements of the prior art have had electric terminations of various types. In some cases a conductor (for connecting the heating element to a source of electrical energy) was secured to the terminal pin in various manners, such as by welding, crimping, or by a nut threaded on screw threads formed on the outer end of the terminal pin.
However, because of the need for quick connection and disconnection of a conductor to the terminal pin, spade-like terminals were welded to the outer end of the terminal pin so that a complementary female terminal (to which the conductor is connected) may be easily connected thereto or disconnected therefrom. Terminals of this type are made and sold by Ark-Les, Amp, Essex, Tomson-Betts and others.
However, welding of a spade-like terminal to the end of a terminal pin increased the cost of manufacture in that it includes the cost of the terminals and their handling, and the cost of welding the terminals to the end of the terminal pin. Welding of the spade-like terminals to the terminal pin required care on the part of the operator to insure that the weld was proper so that the spade-like terminals did not separate from the terminal pin during handling and shipment of the electric heating element, or the apparatus in which it was incorporated. Further, welding sometimes resulted in welded splatter on the spade-like terminal and such splatter in many cases had to be removed so that there would be no interference when the female terminal was connected to the male terminal. Also, welding in many cases adversely affected the nickel plating which is usually applied to terminal pins.
Our invention overcomes all of the disadvantages noted above and comprises the forming of a spade-like (male) terminal as an integral part of the terminal pin of the electric heating element.